At 11:30 a.m., President Bush vows to help those affected by the storm

State puts contrflow plan into effect on interstates

Superdome houses 26,000 residents as city's "refuge of last resort"

Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, telephones the Times-Picayune to warn of a "worst-case scenario"

Tropical storm-force winds close down emergency services in metro area

At 9 p.m., Times-Picayune building loses power, generators power up

Monday August 29

At 3 a.m., Katrina makes landfall as a Category 3 hurricane at the Southwest Pass at the mouth of the Mississippi River

Metro-area emergency officals hold status meeting

At 6 a.m., 317,000 households are without power

At 7 a.m., water reported coming over the levee in the 9th Ward

At 8:45 a.m., six to eight-foot flood waters reported in Lower 9th Ward

At 9 a.m., winds rip hole in roof of Superdome

At 9 a.m., eye of the storm passes to the east of New Orleans central business district. Windows in high-rise buildings blow out

11 a.m., NWS reports a breach in the Industrial Canal levee, emptying Lake Pontchartrain into the neighborhoods of Eastern New Orleans, the Lower Ninth Ward in Orleans Parish and all of St. Bernard Parish

2 p.m., breach in the 17th Street Canal is confirmed. Flooding of Lakeview, Mid-City, Broodmoor, Gentilly result over the next 48 hours.

Local media reports that Martial Law is declared in Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines Parish

Looting reports go national presenting New Orleans as a lawless and violent haven for those still trapped in the city

Flood waters continue to rise throughout city

Wednesday August 31

Flood waters reach an equlibrium as the "bowl" of the city is now even with Lake Ponchartrain

Some neighborhoods under as much as 20 feet of water

Hellish scenes reported from those stranded in the Superdome: assaults, rape and suicide reported though later most dismissed

Estimates of 30 days before city can be pumped out

Thousands stranded in houses, on roofs

Approximatley one million people with power in metro area

Media reports that thousands are stranded in the New Orleans Convention Center without food or water as a steady stream of people, many from the flooded Central City neighborhood, trickled first toward Lee Circle and then to the Convention Center, hoping to be saved from increasingly desperate straits

Thursday September 1

Corps of Engineers begins to build dam to stop levee breach at the 17th Street Canal